Jun

A Fountain Worth Playing In

The late John W. Kluge, CC ’37, generously donated to Columbia. By generously we mean he doled out more than $500 million to Columbia over the course of his life. Once the richest man in America, Kluge made a ridiculous amount of money, and gave most of it away. But the TV mogul kept some cash to purchase fancy coastal real estate.

As part of his donation, he left one such property, the paradoxically named Casa Sin Nombre, to Columbia, and the University has just put the compound on the market for $59 million. Although Kluge nobly stipulated that the proceeds from the property’s sale were to be earmarked for scholarship students, we can’t help but wish Columbia had decided to keep it—what a luxurious “study-abroad” option.